Chefany

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Three ways to finish a German Chocolate cake


The first was was suggested by our illustrious French baking instructor... the 4.5cm ring mold.
It must be 4.5 cm no more no less...!! This is the French method remember... in reality if you have a spring form mold it will do just fine...
We made 6" cakes and cut each one into two layers. The mold was measured in centimeters so was just a bit bigger than the cake which was just what I needed to pull this French thingy off well.
I started by using the cardboard cake circle, placing one of the cake layers in side the ring. I then piped some of the chocolate buttercream (Italian meringue style) around the outside of the cake but inside of the mold! I piped rings of buttercream up the side of the metal mold. I then spread some of the yummy caramel, coconut, pecan filling on the cake layer and then placed the next cake on top of that. Pressing it down slightly so the buttercream filled the sides of this cake too. Then I piped a bit more buttercream around the edge of the cake to make sure it was all filled in. Then came the topping and this is what you see here... I then put the cake in the freezer for about an hour to let the buttercream set up a bit.

When you heat the ring slightly and then slide it up off the cake, the sides have a perfect smooth edge...better than you can do by hand...but you need the rings and the time!
The next way was the traditional iced cake. I just hand iced this one using an icing spatula on the sides of the cake and then piped boarders around the bottom and the top.

and finally I cut the cake into three layers putting filling in twice and then iced the cake completely with the chocolate buttercream. My class needed to practice their piping so I did several different boarders and a rose too! Not my usual type of decorating but the class liked the demo!


All righty then! NOW...ta da... for the side by side comparison of the three different techniques! Please vote for your favorite :)

Super smooth Frenchy style, rustic hand iced or the elegant way too much piping, thus too much icing technique!

2 comments:

Joobes said...

*mmm* looks good

Katie said...

They all look wonderful but my favourite (by a tiny bit) would be the middle one in the last pic. I like the piped edgeing and how you can see the top filling. YUM